MORE ON: Environment

The state’s Environmental Protection Agency finalized a revision of a controversial K-12 environmental curriculum on plastic bags Friday. California Watch reported last year that whole sections of an 11th-grade teachers' edition guide for a new curriculum had been lifted almost... + read more

State regulators need to have more oversight of new types of companies that claim to have a social or environmental mission, legal experts say. About 75 companies have registered as "benefit" or "flexible purpose" corporations since Gov. Jerry Brown... + read more

For decades, an unlikely alliance of environmentalists and Republican officials has pushed for draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park, a prime source of water and power for the city of San Francisco. They’re nowhere near achieving their goal: blowing a hole in 89-year-... + read more

California homes that meet environmental standards, such as energy efficiency and proximity to public transportation, are selling at higher prices than homes that don't, according to a new report. The study, conducted by researchers at UC Berkeley and UCLA, looked... + read more

Toxic chemicals used to rid rodents from illicit marijuana gardens in the Sierra Nevada range and elsewhere in California may have inadvertently poisoned dozens of vulnerable weasel-like mammals called fishers, according to a new study released today. Biologists from UC Davis, the nonprofit... + read more

Less than a week before Candlestick Point State Recreation Area is slated to close, no deep-pocketed savior has emerged to keep open the waterfront park, which is in one of San Francisco's poorest neighborhoods. Unlike Candlestick Point, most of the other 16 state parks in the Bay Area... + read more

Poor, urban and minority residents are most at risk for health problems linked to climate change, according to a new California Department of Public Health analysis of Los Angeles and Fresno counties. The department examined social and environmental factors ranging from the rising sea level to... + read more

State officials are taking a step back from reducing air pollution. The California Air Resources Board is planning on rolling back diesel emission limits for trucks, buses, bulldozers, backhoes and other construction equipment. The move will “extend relief to businesses,... + read more

Scientists say a California high-speed rail system will not only get you from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours, but will create thousands of jobs and eliminate millions of pounds of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere. At least that’s what they're saying... + read more

The federal government announced this week that a major U.S. chemical manufacturer has agreed to spend approximately $26 million to clean up 17 contaminated sites, including one in California. Chemtura Corporation is a major producer of flame retardants, chemical polymers and crop protection... + read more

In the search for new sources of energy, California policymakers may need to look to the birds. The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday on a company interested in building chicken litter-fueled power plants in poultry-producing states. The company, Fibrowatt LLC, is based in Langhorne... + read more

It’s getting complicated out there. This week brought studies and news reports about the potential harms of products as seemingly innocuous as sunscreen, Gingko pills and vinyl house siding. Studies like these make me sigh and assume that I'm more likely to be abducted by a giant... + read more

The day that cadmium jewelry became the new lead paint felt like the day to throw up one’s hands. How does one keep track of all the toxins, the endocrine disruptors, the chemicals that collect in our blood streams when they really belong in a jet engine? As if on cue, a group of UC San... + read more